French authorities are looking for a woman who said a German cyclist left the scene after hitting her sign, triggering a race in the first stage of the race.
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French authorities said they were looking for an unidentified woman who was holding a banner on the roadside of the Tour de France on Saturday, which caused a collision and dozens of cyclists fell to the ground.
On-site video shows that after a German rider Tony Martin hit a roadside sign before he fell, the fallen athlete fell into a pile of tangled legs and spinning wheels. This caused a series of collisions in the middle of the peloton. This French word means "ball" or "group" and also refers to a group of cyclists in a competition.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, the authorities of the French Finistere province in Brittany asked witnesses to help them identify the woman holding a banner, which read: "ALLEZ OPI-OMI!"-French word "go "And two German words for the love of grandparents. Before the crash, she seemed to face the racer with her back to the TV camera.
According to the authorities, the accident occurred in the first stage of the 21 stages of the competition, in the city of San Cardo. Police said the woman wearing glasses and a yellow jacket left the scene before investigators arrived.
Last weekend, Pierre-Yves Tuot, the deputy director of cycling for the Amauri Sports organization responsible for the Tour de France, told AFP that the organization plans to prosecute the woman. "We do this so that the few who do this will not spoil everyone's show," he said.
On Monday, the Amaury Sports organization confirmed that it had filed a complaint with the French authorities about the woman, but did not immediately respond to questions about potential litigation.
The collision was one of two major crashes on the first day of the race, resulting in four cyclists withdrawing due to injuries: Jasha Sütterlin from Germany, Marc Soler from Spain, Cyril Lemoine from France and Ignatas Konovalovas from Lithuania.
It is not uncommon for fans of the Tour de France to squeeze on the road and accidentally (or even deliberately) trip over competitors, and the rise of audience selfies in the past decade has exacerbated this risk.
But racers always have to fight against unexpected obstacles.
In 2011, a car belonging to a news worker caught a group of riders and caused one of them, Johnny Hoogerland of the Netherlands, to hit a barbed wire fence. In 2018, several cyclists rode in police tear gas prepared for the protesters. The race was interrupted for about 15 minutes when the rider was given eye drops.
In a series of high-profile events in 2016, in stage 12, a group of viewers parked a TV motorcycle on the path of a cyclist. When he waited for the replacement bike to catch up with him, he ran to the finish line.
After the game on Saturday, Martin was able to continue to participate in the game. His team, Jumbo-Visma, said on Twitter on Sunday, “After this massive and despicable crash, all of our drivers seem to be fine.”
On Instagram, Martin thanked his fans for their support and added a message for "everyone on the road who thinks #tourdefrance is a circus".
Then he provided a message “to those who think it’s good to show a bare butt, to those who are drunk who push us aside while climbing, and to those who think it’s a good idea to hold a sign on the road in a large group. .pass through."
"Please respect the drivers and #tourdefrance!" he wrote. "Use your head or stay at home!"